More Haydn or Mozart in your collection?

SophiaL

New member
In reorganizing my CDs recently, I was surprised to learn that I own far more recordings of Haydn's music than Mozart's. And my Mozart collection had far more duplicated works (numerous clarinet quintets, Masses in C Minor and Symphonies in G Minor) than the Haydn; if you controlled for that, Haydn's oeuvre is far better represented. Maybe this is not that surprising given that Haydn lived a longer life & had a longer composing career. But still, I was surprised.


Am I anomalous? What's your Haydn:Mozart ratio?
 

John Watt

Member
Oh! Obviously you're not North American.
The movie "Amadeus" was so huge, such a long, long hit,
even I ended up having a nice VHS copy.
The music, castles, clothes, art, the stages and costumes, wow!

My girlfriend at the time, a library research technician,
knew about it and wanted to go, seeing it in Hamilton.
It didn't come out in wide release at first, until it won Academy Awards,
and then it came back, and back, even a little backamentatti,
until even I watched the video too many times.

Worse than that, oh, oh, it hurts a little, just when that was over,
one of the most famous crack-heads in all of classic hard rock history,
Eddie Van Halen, named his son Wolfgang.
That started this Mozart thing all over again.

You want to know how Mozart was buried, how he made love,
the style and number of different coloured wigs that he used,
I've seen more than that, but,
right now, I can't even come up with a first name for Haydn.

And if you're thinking maybe I'm right, who might be the second most popular?
The Rocky Horror Picture Show. That's classical music for most North Americans,
as far as getting out for a little late night show, or pop in the movie.

Okay, I'm just trying to make you feel better.
Rocky Horror outsold Amadeus and self-referential Van Halen associated sales,
with additional sales as costumes for Halloween.
And that's not counting the travelling road show, the first, the second,
and then the third with the original movie cast, and then the Canadian cast,
the New York cast, and... and....
somewhere in Europe, where Haydn once lived,
blowing leaves are collecting in the corners of his music rooms,
unplayed compositions waft around, drying and falling to pieces,
chewed on by mice and centipedes, pieces of a harpsichord on the floor.
Mean-while, back in the good old U.S.A., a royalty free movie soundtrack world,
for actual passages as pre-recorded symphonic performances from Europe,
or synthesized for keys as mix, or tones for track placements and sonic use,
show Hadyn to be of more use for gentle background sounds.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
twinkle twinkle, little star, how I wonder where you are.
 
Top